The Prime Minister-appointed expert group to take on the Naxal challenge has asked for a new displacement and rehabilitation policy before allowing mining projects in tribal-dominated districts and channelling a part of the mining profits for local development.
The recommendations of the group could make the government revise the norms for allocating mining blocks to private sector bidders.
The cabinet has recently cleared a new mineral policy that aims to simplify the rules for mining. But the changes to bring in significant private sector investment in mining of coal and iron ore may need a rewrite again.
The Planning Commission group on ?development issues to deal with causes of discontent, unrest and extremism? has recommended several measures, including development of local technical skill of the poor local communities, to tap the benefits from mineral resources presence in their districts.
It has reiterated the governments? thesis that the spread of Naxalite violence is not related to any lacunae in states? law and order machinery. Instead the problems stem from loopholes in government-sponsored development programmes and faulty economic policies. These can be plugged if the benefits of industrial development accrue to the locals.
A source told FE that the group, chaired by D Bandopadhyay, former land reforms commissioner of West Bengal, would submit the report to the Prime Minister?s Office soon. The group was formed at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on May 29, 2006.